How much ad spend are you wasting?
Bad attribution sends budget to channels that did not cause the sale. Enter your spend and your best guess at the share, and see what it costs you a year.
Three platforms, three answers, one budget to defend. Your GA4 export already holds the answer, and the first finding is free and never leaves your browser. Get your first finding free
Why are you wasting ad spend?
Every ad platform marks its own homework. Meta says it drove the sale. Google says it drove the sale. TikTok says it drove the sale. They all take credit for the same purchase, and you pay all three of them for it.
This is called multi-touch attribution failure. When your customer sees a TikTok ad, Googles your brand, then clicks a Meta retargeting ad before buying, last-click attribution gives 100% credit to Meta. TikTok, which created the demand, gets zero.
The result? You cut TikTok spend (it "doesn't work"), Meta ROAS drops a few weeks later (because the demand pipeline dried up), and you have no idea why. The cycle quietly burns budget every month.
- Meta claims the sale100%
- Google claims the sale100%
- TikTok claims the sale100%
- Klaviyo claims the sale100%
Reported revenue: €400 · Actual revenue: €100 · Gap: €300
How causal attribution stops the waste
Causal inference doesn't ask "who touched the customer last?" It asks "what would have happened without this channel?" That's the only question that matters for budget allocation.
Causality Engine uses causal inference to split the credit fairly across every channel, the problem Shapley values were designed for. The result is what each channel caused, with a data-health score on each, so you can reallocate budget with evidence, not guesswork.
Frequently asked questions
How much ad spend do ecommerce brands typically waste?
There is no reliable single figure: it depends on your channel mix, how much each platform over-claims, and how many of the sales would have happened anyway. The calculator uses the share you enter rather than assuming one. A causal read of your own GA4 export shows what each of your channels actually caused.What causes wasted ad spend?
The main causes are: last-click attribution giving credit to the wrong channel, iOS privacy changes hiding conversions from tracking pixels, platform self-attribution bias (Meta, Google, TikTok all claiming credit for the same sale), and view-through conversions inflating reported ROAS.How does Causality Engine reduce wasted spend?
Causality Engine uses causal inference to estimate what each channel actually caused, next to what last-click gave it, with a next step per channel. With that, brands move budget from over-credited channels to under-credited ones.
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<p>Free wasted ad spend calculator by <a href="https://www.causalityengine.ai/tools/wasted-ad-spend-calculator">Causality Engine</a></p>Use cases
- Estimate the upside of switching attribution methodology
- Estimate the cost of misallocated paid spend
- Map organic touchpoints to revenue
- Map retention touchpoints to revenue
- Map brand touchpoints to revenue
Your platforms guess.
We run the math.
Upload a GA4 export and see what each channel caused, next to last-click, in 1–2 minutes. The read is yours to keep.
The free finding runs in your browser. Your file never leaves it. The full read is €99, refundable within 30 days, no questions asked. Prices exclude VAT.